Wilwood Drag Brake Install - Braking A Project Car

We put the brakes on our Three-Valve Fox with the help of Wilwood and Classic Tube

Pete EppleTechnical Editor

June 15, 2011

Photos By:
Marc Christ

We all know how important power isùit throws you back in the seat, shreds tires, and makes driving just plain fun. We spend so much time trying to find more power, but what good is it if you can't stop?

With our Three-Valve Fox getting closer to hitting the street, it's time to put some emphasis on the binders. Because this Mustang sat for so long in New Jersey, the brakes took a beating. Subpar brakes are a huge safety factor, and we discovered rust on the lines and other problems when the lines were removed from the car. There was no chance of reusing parts that were rusty.

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Another issue was the lack of space for a power brake booster. The width of the Hot Rod Three-Valve crate engine took up a large chunk of the real estate once occupied by the booster. With this space gone, we had two optionsùinstall the later-model Hydroboost setup or go with manual brakes. Wanting to keep things as simple as possible, we opted to take the manual route.

In order to get all of the parts for our braking system, we turned to Wilwood Engineering for a set of its Dynalite Pro Series four-piston brake kits. These come in separate kits for the front and rear, and use the same fixed-caliper, four-piston design.

The front kit (PN 140-11018) uses 11-inch vented rotors with fixed four-piston calipers. It includes the rotors, calipers, hub assemblies, inner and outer wheel bearings, brake lines, and all of the hardware to mount the kit. The front kit uses the stock Fox-body spindles, but some modifications are required to make the system work.

Once each corner was taken care of, it was time address what connects the system. Wilwood also sent us one of its 1-inch bore aluminum tandem master cylinders (PN 260-8555-P). With the switch to manual brakes, this master cylinder will give us all of the flow needed to stop our Fox. Lastly, Wilwood included one of its compact proportioning valves (PN 260-8419), which will allow us to fine-tune the brake bias front to rear.

With all of the hard components in hand, it was time to put it all together. When it comes to lines, there is only one place to turn. Classic Tube offers all of the stock brakes lines for the Fox-body Mustang in durable stainless steel. The lines arrive pre-bent and simply need to be stretched out and installed. As we are switching to manual brakes, the absence of the power brake booster meant some lines had to be altered to fit.